How do I... research costumes and fashion?

Costume

Fashion

Images

Usually refers to the prevailing fashion in coiffure, jewelry, and apparel of a specific period, country, or class. Costume can indicate obsolete, historical or retro styles of clothing, jewelry and apparel of a time period. It may also refer to the artistic arrangement of accessories or clothing in a movie or play representing the time, place, or other circumstances described within the given medium.

CHINOOK: Search CU Library Catalog

click here to view

Subject Headings

Here are a few potential subject headings used in Chinook. Use these terms to search under “subjects” or “keyword”.

The prevailing style (as in dress/clothing) during a particular time. Fashion is most commonly applied as a general term for a currently popular style, especially in clothing, footwear or accessories. Fashion is presently the most frequently used term to describe the study and design of clothing.

CHINOOK: Search CU Library Catalog

click here to view

Here are a few potential subject headings used in Chinook. Use these terms to search under “subjects” or “keyword”.

Provides access to Grove art online; The Oxford companion to western art; The concise Oxford dictionary of art terms; Encyclopedia of Aesthetics. Includes entries on costumes, fashion design and clothing

Casey Fashion Plates (LAPL)
The Joseph E. Casey Fashion Plate Collection at the Los Angeles Public Library contains over 6,200 hand colored fashion plates from British and American magazines dating from the 1790s to the 1880s. All of the plates are indexed and digitized for online viewing.

Design & applied arts index
DAAI will help you find articles from scholarly and trade journals on modern and contemporary design, including fashion, costume, and clothing.

Recommended Journal

Fashion theory [electronic resource]: Fashion Theory bases itself on the idea of ‘fashion’ as the cultural construction of the embodied identity. Peer-reviewed articles cover a range of topics from foot-binding to fashion advertising. Four issues are published every year.

Boston Museum of Fine Arts
BFA's collection is mainly focused on textiles, but the museum website contains digitized images of fashion illustrations and highlights from their Textile and Fashion Arts Collection

Casey Fashion Plates (LAPL)
The Joseph E. Casey Fashion Plate Collection at the Los Angeles Public Library contains over 6,200 handcolored fashion plates from British and American magazines dating from the 1790s to the 1880s. All of the plates are indexed and digitized for online viewing.

Daphne Dare Collection
Online images from the Daphne Dare Collection at Ohio State University's Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute. Dare was a British designer for theatre, film, and television who worked on both sides of the Atlantic.

LACMA Costume and Textiles
LACMA's online collection showcases their 18th-19th century European costume collection as well as English fashion drawings by Anne Frankland Lewis and images from various collections from LACMA's repository.

London College of Fashion’s Woolmark Company Collection
These black and white photographs from the 1940's through to the early 1980's capture designs of key couturiers. Includes examples from the ready-to-wear market by manufacturers such as British Home Stores, Berkertex, Windsmoor, Susan Small, and Marks & Spencer, as well as examples by top designers such as Mary Quant and Christian Dior.

Metropolitan Museum of Art - The Costume Institute
The Met's Costume Institute online collection is browesable and searchable online with more than 25,000 descriptions of the pieces from their collection and the Brooklyn Museum. Many of the individual records also include images that can be viewed online.

Wayne State University Digital Library
Includes the Digital Dress: 200 Years of Urban Style collection. Records are searchable in the database and includes examples of occupational, formal, recreational, mourning, masquerade, and everyday wear for men, women, and children. Pieces by European and American designers, local dressmakers and retailers, and home made garments are included.